Trial of man accused in Metro PCS killing of young clerk delayed due to questions over his intellectual abilities

The trial of a man accused of an execution-like slaying of a 20-year-old phone store manager has been indefinitely delayed while prosecutors and defense lawyers seek to determine whether James Xavier Rhodes is too intellectually disabled to be executed.

Rhodes’ trial was scheduled to begin Aug. 11, but Circuit Judge Tatiana Salvador agreed Tuesday to delay it due to questions about Rhodes’ mental competency. The delay was requested by Rhodes’ lawyers, and prosecutors did not object.

Rhodes, 22, is accused of killing Shelby Farah in July 2013 in the Metro PCS store on North Main Street. According to police reports Rhodes pulled a gun on Farah and shot her in the head after she gave him several hundred dollars.

The killing was captured on surveillance video.

Psychiatrists are now testing Rhodes’ mental abilities but have not yet completed a report on their findings. After the report is completed, Assistant Public Defender Debra Billard will present it to Salvador and and probably argue that it shows Rhodes cannot be executed.

Assistant State Attorney John Guy will then likely demand that an expert chosen by the state examine Rhodes. If the state’s expert argues that Rhodes is competent, the issue will likely go to a hearing with Salvador deciding.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing someone who is intellectually disabled violates the Eighth-Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Florida responded to that ruling by passing a law that said people facing capital punishment can only argue that they are intellectually disabled if they have an IQ score of 70 or below, not taking into account a margin of error.

But the U.S. Supreme Court threw out that law earlier this year and said the state could not automatically declare that anyone with an IQ score higher than 70 was not intellectually disabled, and judges have to look at other factors as well.

Prior to his latest arrest, Rhodes got out of prison in April 2013 after serving three years for aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a delinquent felon.

He’s currently charged with murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a weapon or ammunition by a felon. He remains in jail.

Police said Rhodes also had a lengthy juvenile record. In 2005 and 2006 he was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and in 2008 he was charged as a juvenile with armed robbery, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

To be clear, Black's Law Dictionary defines "unsound mind" as:
A person of unsound mind is an adult who from infirmity of mind is incapable of managing himself or his affairs.

Due to this man's lengthy criminal record, the insanity defense is weak. During his prior felony of aggravated assault, he was wielding a machete, stormed into an office building and threatened two office employees shouting that they were going to die. None of the Duval County court records showed that his attorneys plead insanity in that case. Furthermore, with his long list of prior offenses in juvenile courts, there is clearly a history demonstrating that this unlawful behavior is habitual for this criminal. Thus, the only person(s) of unsound mind would be those trying to argue that the defendant is of unsound mind.